TRENDING

By GCN Staff

Report: Government website satisfaction drops

Americans’ satisfaction with federal government services dropped 3.4 percent in 2013, according to this year’s American Consumer Satisfaction Index. Citizens gave the government a score of 66.1 on a 100-point scale, reversing two consecutive years of gains.

The decline is thought to be largely due to frustration caused by navigating government websites such as Healthcare.gov. The negative impact of the site’s launch has reverberated at the department level, according to ACSI< as Health and Human Services overall dropped 4 percent to 66. But government website satisfaction overall dropped from 74 to 72 in 2013 indicating that users have found websites more difficult to navigate and less reliable across the board.

The results point to government’s challenge in delivering satisfactory service while keeping up with consumers’ overall online demands. Websites have become citizens’ most popular method of interaction with government, with 35 percent of all users of federal services accessing information via the Internet. This percentage makes up more than telephone and agency visits combined.

The report found a few bright spots for online government, though, including high satisfaction with electronic tax filing with the IRS. Electronic filing scored 75 in 2013, compared to paper filing at 55. The gap of 20 or more points has remained in place for over a decade.

The report was based on a broad survey of 70,000 people designed to benchmark satisfaction with companies and services and websites.

Through interviews conducted via email and telephone, 1,448 random users were asked to evaluate their recent experiences with federal government services.